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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23086648">Your Hand In Mine</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/cravingmymcnuggies/pseuds/cravingmymcnuggies'>cravingmymcnuggies</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime &amp; Manga)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Body Worship, Established Relationship, Filled With My Headcannons, Fluff and Angst, Fluffy Ending, How Do I Tag, Lazy Mornings, M/M, Mentions of child neglect, Post Reincarnation Arc, Rated T for swearing, Soft Nozel Silva, Soft Zora Ideale</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 00:34:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,362</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23086648</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/cravingmymcnuggies/pseuds/cravingmymcnuggies</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Zora and Nozel spend the morning after a rough mission in bed. The past is revealed, kisses are shared, and time is on their side.</p><p>But as long as your hand is in my mine, I won't stop loving you.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nozel Silva/Zora Ideale</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Your Hand In Mine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Zora learns that it's okay to dream. Nozel learns that it's okay if their hands don't fit perfectly together.</p><p>They'll still keep loving each other.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>One of Zora's favorite features of Nozel's were his hands. His eyes were a nice shade of purple that wasn't too boldly bright, his ass was firm in the right places and soft in the better ones, and God forbid his lips not be as soft as they are. But the elder's hands were like a work of art crafted from that deer squad captain, or maybe even someone else with a higher level of skill. Nozel's hands were pale and nimble, quick with reflexes and equipped with a strong grip. There was no knuckle hair (which was fucking ridiculous, as far as Zora was concerned) and his cuticles were always pushed into a perfect arch.</p><p>But Zora could only <em>observe </em>Nozel's hands. He was never allowed to touch them outside of certain...<em> intense</em> activities, but even then, he was too busy to truly appreciate them. They had this unspoken rule not to touch the elder's hands, and they never broke it.</p><p>Until the morning after a rough mission left the two battered, bruised, and bedridden.</p><p>To be fair, Zora was probably exaggerating just a <em>tiny</em> bit. Mimosa was on the team and helped heal everyone afterwards, and Zora knows for a fact he's been through much worse injuries in the past that he's had to rest through for a few weeks on his own with no medical supplies whatsoever. But there were still bruises on his arms and an ache in his legs that coaxed him into lingering in bed for long after he woke up.</p><p>It wasn't like the bed made it easy to wake up, either. The pair had crashed in Nozel's room after the mission, and the noble had the luxury of having a perfect resting place. The queen sized mattress sunk down and massaged the painful knots of Zora's back when he lied on it, making the redhead understand why Nozel didn't like to leave his bed in the morning. The pillows felt like clouds, easing the kinks in Zora's neck, and the sheets were the smoothest thing he's ever felt in his life.</p><p>But while the bed was comfortable, it didn't fix his injuries, so he allowed himself to indulge.</p><p>Zora turned his head after a few minutes of waking up and looked at his lover. The word "lover" seemed foreign, something only his father ever wished for him, but the light haired man next to him held the title warmly. His breathing was even, steady, and the usual purse to his lips was thinned out into a relaxed expression. His hair was fanned out across his lightly freckled shoulders and pillow, the trademark braid slightly unwound but still covering the middle of his face.</p><p>And right near his head was his pale hand, thin fingers lightly grasping the sheets.</p><p>Zora sucked in a breath and turned onto his side facing Nozel. He rested on top of his elbows and leaned over, taking a moment to just look at Nozel's resting face. It quickly became one of his favorite facial expressions, and he peppered a kiss on the elder's cheek. He gave him another kiss on the cheek, another at the corner of his mouth, another at the edge of his jaw. A little nip at his ear, and a tiny lick on his neck before kissing that, too.</p><p>Zora felt Nozel move slightly under his touch before he exhaled loudly and sleepily said, "You dog." Zora smiled and playfully bit his ear again, to which Nozel swatted him with his hand. "It's too early, you mangy mutt."</p><p>Zora grabbed Nozel's wrist and spoke, "Aw, you don't want to play with me right now? I'm a happy pup, my tail is wagging."</p><p>Nozel cracked an eye open, and for a moment, Zora saw what his father dreamed for him. In the reflection of Nozel's crystal eye, he saw a man who was given worth by his lover, given a reason to fight every day. When Nozel smiled, he felt the rockets on his heart shifting into gear, and when Nozel snuggled closer to his chest, his heart was in orbit. Zora would never tell the noble, but he made his heart do silly things.</p><p>"Good morning, my love," Zora whispered. It sounded gruff and forceful, but the Silva didn't mind.</p><p>"It is not a good morning if I have to wake up so early," the elder replied into his chest. The tingles of his mouth over his heart made Zora wonder if Nozel could tell how fast it was beating.</p><p>"It's half past eleven already, dear."</p><p>"I demand another hour of rest."</p><p>"Time ain't your servant."</p><p>"Not to me. Do you think it would be rude of me to ask the Wizard King to stop the clock for a while?"</p><p>"I don't think he can do that anymore."</p><p>"Shame."</p><p>Zora snorted, "You're ridiculous, darling." He leaned down to give a kiss to his hair, his palm sliding upwards from where it was latched onto Nozel's wrist.</p><p>But instead of his palm melting into the light haired man's hand like he expected, his hand was rough. It felt calloused, worse than Zora's, and was bumpy.</p><p>Zora pulled away to inspect Nozel's hand, asking, "Hey, did Mimosa not heal your hand all the way yesterday?"</p><p>Nozel seemed to still at the question, and his face slowly made it's way from Zora's chest back to his pillow. He closed his eyes, and Zora realized he had never seen Nozel so resigned.</p><p>This was not one of his favorite facial expressions. He didn't want to cause it to happen again.</p><p>"Please don't look," Nozel sighed, and when he opened his eyes, Zora could see the start of the shiny gloss of tears.</p><p>"Hey, hey, hey, hey," Zora whispered. He gave up Nozel's hand in favor of cradling his face with his hands. "What's wrong?"</p><p>Nozel stayed quiet, then, in a voice so terribly little, "It's childish."</p><p>"Not if it makes you cry," Zora said. He kissed Nozel's cheek and said softly, "Talk to me, Zel."</p><p>The light haired man exhaled, regaining his composure. When he was ready, he started, "My magic is mercury. I can summon it, manipulate it, control it. But when I was younger, I didn't have the control I do now. I could summon it, but I couldn't control it smoothly. I spent years summoning spiky blobs of mercury that cut up my hands easily because I couldn't learn to move them away from me."</p><p>"Double edged sword to have so much power as a noble but not be able to use it when you're young," Zora observed. He never had that issue, being a peasant, so he didn't realize it before.</p><p>"Exactly," the eldest Silva agreed. "It can even get dangerous." He lifted a hand to his face, but Zora stayed locked onto his eyes. "I cut my hands constantly, and eventually, mercury flooded my bloodstream. This happened often, at least once every two months. It got to a point where my father started to get angry."</p><p>Nozel paused, recalling details and trying to soothe the trembling in his hand. He continued, "My mother was born with water magic, while my father was bestowed with steel. I am the only Silva child who has not inherited my mother's water magic. My father put pressure on me to become better, to show that just because I was the only one with mercury magic didn't mean I couldn't be on par with their water magic if it was so prevalent."</p><p>"Sounds like pride, to me," Zora commented off handedly. To the redhead, Nozel's dad seemed like he didn't want his steel magic to look weak ; training Nozel to be the strongest out of all the Silva children, to prove his mercury magic was inferior, seemed like the best bet.</p><p>"I realize that now," Nozel groaned. He sounded annoyed with himself. "I was naive. I would train, cut my hands, get poisoned, and my father would take ages to call for a healer, and all I wondered was when I would make my father smile after a training session."</p><p>Nozel's face turned grim, and his eyes seemed so distant. It scared Zora, who knew how it felt to relieve the past, so he laid a gentle finger on his face.</p><p>"The first time I saw my father smile after training was the day I got mercury poisoning so strong it could have killed me. I was helpless on the ground, barely able to move, and all my father said was that he expected me to walk into the house in five minutes and not keep him waiting. He left, and I struggled on the ground. That day, I learned how to remove mercury from my body. I flung it as far as I could away from me, stood up, and walked into the house. My father watched everything from the window and gave me a pat on the back."</p><p>"And father of the year award goes to," Zora said in an announcer's voice. Nozel smirked, and the two sat in a comfortable silence for a few seconds. Then Zora asked quietly, "Did you ever get mercury in your bloodstream again?"</p><p>Nozel nodded. "Twice, I think. But I just purged it from my body before it could reach the cuts on my hands. It was another half a year before I could smoothen out the mercury, but the damage was done. My hands scarred over, and now my hands shake the smallest bit when writing."</p><p>"Why did they scar if you had them healed?" Zora asked.</p><p>"My father never allowed for the healers to completely close the wounds. He said it was to remind me of what would happen if I failed again." Nozel chuckled a humorless laugh. "In some fucked up way, I am grateful my palms are scarred. It reminds me of how far I've come."</p><p>"Oh my, dropping F bombs now, Mister Silva? You kiss your lover with that mouth?"</p><p>"My lover has a mouth that smells of rotten garbage," Nozel sighed dramatically. "If my mouth is dirty, I would hate to dream of what monster lurks in his chasm."</p><p>"Hey, I don't hear you complaining when I--"</p><p>"I was joking."</p><p>"And I'm just pullin' on your leg," Zora said with a wink. The redhead chuckled at Nozel's facial expression to that, but quieted down quickly. In a soft voice, he asked, "Can I see your hands?"</p><p>Nozel's face scrunched up in disdain. "I don't think that's the best idea you've had."</p><p>"Aw, you think?" Zora winced at the kick to his shin, but looked past the pain and said, "Please? If you really don't want to, I'll let it slide, but I just want to see them."</p><p>Nozel sighed and thought about it for a moment before hesitantly letting Zora take his hand. Zora finally moved his eyes away from Nozel's and looked at the ridges lining the elder's palm. The raised skin was pink with slightly red edges, making it look like someone colored the man's hands with a washed out marker. Zora frowned upon noticing that even two of his fingertips had small scars on them.</p><p>"Not very noble like at all," Nozel chuckled without humor. "I don't like them. If I could, I would change them, but healing magic no longer has any effect--"</p><p>Zora pressed his lips to the center of Nozel's palm, eyes closed. He opened them slightly to peek at Nozel between his fingers, and he was pleased with the light blush spreading along his cheeks. He finished his kiss, popped his head back, and then slowly went to the untouched spot next to the first kiss and set his lips upon the skin there.</p><p>Zora took his time, making sure his lips knew every ridge of scarred skin on Nozel's palm. He would sometimes peer over at his lover, staring at the wide eyes for a moment before landing back on task. He kissed harder on the light ones, softer on the dark red bumps, and even nipped a little at his fingertips before kissing them, too.</p><p><em>Lazy mornings must make me soft,</em> Zora thought. <em>I don't care. Know how much I love you. Know that as long as my hand is in yours, I will never stop loving you.</em></p><p>Zora started at the center of Nozel's palm and worked his way around his hand in a clockwork fashion. When he finished at his thumb, Zora leaned forward and gave Nozel a kiss on his lips. It was slow and filled with passion, Zora's heart bleeding out into the kiss.</p><p>He separated from the noble and whispered, "I'm glad you made it that day. You are above whatever garbage excuse of a father you had."</p><p>Nozel shrugged. "I don't--"</p><p>"You are you're own person now. Take pride in your magic. It's yours." Zora kissed Nozel again and said, "I'm proud of who you are. Your hands are a testament to your strength. I love them, and I love you."</p><p>Nozel seemed stunned for a moment, and then showed Zora his favorite facial expression : a soft smile that meant Zora was Nozel's world. That he loved him so much he wouldn't hesitate to let him know. Nozel said, "I love you, too, you mutt."</p><p>Zora gasped loudly. "After all I said to you! Betrayal! Blasphemy! I'm wounded and going down!"</p><p>Nozel laughed as Zora lurched forward and reached a hand upwards, only to slam back down on his pillow with his tongue hanging out. "Aw, you know how to play dead, how cute. Roll over!"</p><p>"Oi, I'll fall off the bed if I do that," Zora joked.</p><p>"That's the goal."</p><p>"Plotting my murder, now, aren't you, my little noble?"</p><p>"Later. I want to stay in bed a bit longer."</p><p>"I think we can do that."</p><p>Zora linked his hand with Nozel's and raised the sheets over the chests. He cradled Nozel's head under his chin and intertwined their fingers.</p><p>They had all the time in the world to lie in bed. And with all that time, Zora would never let Nozel's hand go.</p><p>Maybe having a lover wasn't so bad.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This is my first fic I've ever posted on here even though I've had this account for over a year, I think, so if you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed this oneshot!! I filled it with my own headcannons, and I hope I did this rarepair justice. 💙💫</p></blockquote></div></div>
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